And so we begin...
Runners Up listed alphabetically
Tell Me How You Really Feel
Rock : Listen
Courtney Barnett is not afraid of you. Not of your judgement, or your physicality. Not of your loudness, your ignorance, or your calls for "Pedestrian at Best part 2." After a stint with Kurt Vile where she exorcised all her folk demons, Barnett returns with a glorious, fuzzed-out ode to self-empowerment, and a devious look at modern life. Picking up where she left off on Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit, she plays the guitar like there's an urgent need to get it out, and her songwriting is as visceral and crunchy as ever. Tell Me How You Really Feel proves that the best artists don't have a sophomore slump, they just power through. Barnett's idiosyncratic brand of Aussie-surfer rock is reflected in both how relaxed she is talking about serious themes, as well as her obvious accent, and it makes the album feel like a Melbourne breeze. Truly a great time for parties or for arguing with the patriarchy, grab your six-string and let's march!
God's Favorite Customer
Folk rock : Listen
Joshua Tillman's music as Father John Misty has previously been almost oppressively soft, like being trapped in the plush blanket that's slowly suffocating you. And while I didn't particularly care for the musicality of his last effort, Pure Comedy, which was released just last year, it did mark a dark-yet-intriguing turning point in his lyricism. With God's Favorite Customer, he's finally got it all in one package. His sarcasm is biting, the music is catchy and original, the satire is hilarious, the sounds are infectious. "Date Night" alone could take an entire article to describe, its harsh production makes the guitar almost too clear, like a knife made of ice; and the lyrics are so intensely sardonic--Tillman takes on the persona of a pick-up artist/men's rights activist hitting on a woman at a bar--he could win a rap battle that would simultaneously light his opponent's hair on fire. It turns out that God's favorite is brutally honest, meta, and profoundly frustrating.
Double Negative
Dream pop : Listen
Have you ever been in awe of beauty? Experiencing Double Negative is like seeing a statue of Mary cry: humbling, confusing, exhilarating. Everything you once questioned seems perfectly clear, and all of your doubts leave like butterflies at morning. Low has been making delicate, minimalist pop since the 90s, but until now they've eschewed electronics as though they feared an infectious disease. Their embracing of them here is not only revelatory, it's revolutionary. The low buzzes and thrums obfuscate any true song structure, leading to a meditative drone that only serves as the silver platter on which to serve Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker's vocals, which float like light beams through an open tomb. If this album doesn't reduce you to tears, it's because you have long since given up on humanity. This is proof that there are still beautiful, new things in the world.
Golden Hour
Country/Pop : Listen
Country, as a modern genre, is pretty devoid of new ideas. So when someone who has been almost solely responsible for the best writing in the industry decides to release her own work? Well that turns heads, and rightfully so. Kacey Musgraves has been in country for years without much fanfare, more keen to take up the booth than the mic, but finally shines through on Golden Hour. Technically her fourth album (bet you didn't know she actually had that many), it includes standard country fare like "Slow Burn" and "Butterflies", ballads like the beautiful closer "Rainbow," and "High Horse" is a straight-up disco song. This much variation isn't supposed to travel Country's halls, much less stop in each room to offer coffee and dessert. The warmth and congeniality that burst through every note is so inviting, like wrapping yourself up in front of the fire.
Wide Awake!
Punk/Dance-punk : Listen
"And fuck Tom Brady!" A. Savage screams at the end of album opener "Total Football," a scathing indictment of toxic masculinity and divisiveness in politics. The song calls to mind the better Clash songs that hide a deeper meaning behind fun rhythms and silly-sounding lyrics. Of course, most of the band's hatred toward TB12 is more related to their New York background than any sort of problem he may or may not represent, but the line is a great segue into the strange and entertaining world of Wide Awake!, Parquet Courts' sixth album (if you include that one they released as Parkay Quarts), and their best since 2012's Light Up Gold. The 38-minute runtime is so overly-listenable and bouncy you would forget that half of it is meant to impart some kind of meaning. Almost more brilliant than each song's writing are the transitions from one to another; the album flows so seamlessly you'll wonder how you got to closer "Tenderness" without taking a breath, but that's all part of the genius.
Daytona
Hip hop : Listen
If you know rap, you know Kanye West almost always saves the best beats for...everyone else. While he has brilliant songs of his own, and even released his own brilliant album this year, Daytona is proof positive that the man is a born producer. And Pusha T is no slouch either, his rhymes here are punchier and meaner than ever, leaving only destruction in his wake as he skates over the inventive hooks. And when he's not harshing his haters, he's hating on the perpetrators of sexual violence that led to #metoo, while at the same time setting up a safe space for his features (another Kanye specialty: letting the feature have the best bar). The sounds here run the full gammit, from Kanye's typical soul and R&B samples, to the more familiar Pusha T bass drops and subwoofer blowouts, and all of them backup the rhymes perfectly--not too ostentatious, not too veiled, but just right. Daytona was the first to be released of Kanye's 21-minute trifecta (the others being his own Ye and his collaboration with Kid Cudi, Kids See Ghosts), where each song is straight to the point, with nary a superfluous bridge or extra verse in sight. --An aside: Pusha drops a line about being as good as Dylon, the fictional Trinidadian rapper who "spits hot fire," made famous in Dave Chappelle's skit "Making the Band," and it's the most amazing moment in all of rap this year.-- Then there's "Infrared," which might have the best sample-loop hook in all of 2018, and is such a worthy last track that Drake had a whole diss track ghostwritten for him to respond to it.
Honey
Electropop : Listen
Robyn's first album in eight years opens with a shimmering trail of synths, soon breaking into her usual beats, but these are different, more subtle, more tender. Honey is the culmination of nearly a decade of touring, writing, and more importantly to the narrative, life experience. It lacks the bombast and four-on-the-floor brashness of 2010's Body Talk, but it still contains all the closeness and vulnerability. Many of the beats are incredibly complex (not that Robyn shies away from complexity) as in the natural percussion of "Human Being," or the nearly experimental "Beach 2k20." She also doesn't forget to show you her roots on the disco-funk of "Because It's in the Music," probably the album's most upbeat and cheerful song. Robyn's voice flits over the lithe and fluid music while maintaining a feeling of timidity and reserve, still guarded after being hurt so many times. While elsewhere, like "Send to Robin Immediately," her singing soars, loud and proud, calling forth the spirit of Annie Lennox, an obvious influence, with both her gospel-style delivery and lyrical composition. And then, praise be, we have "Ever Again," the funkiest, sultriest, all-around greatest post-breakup song that's ever been made. If anyone can make being newly single sound fun, it's Robyn, and she steps into her role with a gusto and bravado that makes other pop stars wilt in her sun.
Your Queen Is a Reptile
African jazz : Listen
Shocking news: I'm not a huge fan of jazz. But, every once in a while a new act will pop up that makes you wonder if maybe all those hipsters and beatniks might be on to something. One thing you'll notice right away is Sons of Kemet have their drums and percussion very forward, a change to jazz in general, unless you're listening to Buddy Rich, I guess. But the change is a welcome one, not only providing a much needed freshening of the genre, but also highlighting the band's African roots to great effect. No one will be able to accuse Your Queen Is a Reptile of being unoriginal. It also gets you to move; gone are the days of "listening to the notes they don't play"--the most condescending and pretentious notion in all of music--Sons of Kemet want everyone to party while they dazzle you with exemplary instrumentation and glorious lyricism. And while your queen (and by inference the Queen) may be a reptile, the Sons' queens are warrior women and civil right heroines: Ada Eastman, Harriet Tubman, Angela Davis, Yaa Asantewaa. The vocals, delivered by Michael Alec Anthony West and Josh Idehen, highlight their dissatisfaction with world leaders' distance from the African experience, from the refugee experience, from struggle, from hardship, from racism, from poverty. But in their telling, we are connected to each other, to true human interaction, to the power of people, to the joy of life, to hope, to light.
Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides
Electronic : Listen
The opening of SOPHIE's debut album is a solemn, piano affair with a few electronic flourishes. It states the Scottish producer's thesis simply and beautifully. That sound...does not last. Almost immediately after "It's Okay to Cry," we are dropped in to a nightmare world of overblown bass, staggering synths, piercing percussion, harsh static, and near-Seussian world building delivered in both mocking falsetto and disturbing kidnapper-modulation. In fact, the next duo of songs, "Ponyboy" and "Faceshopping," are the two most hardcore songs you'll hear this year, easily crushing Death Grips' "Black Paint;" SOPHIE could open for Converge and probably upstage them. Now, Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides is not just random noise--far from it--when you are able to finally discern the song from the cacophony, you achieve a brief glimpse into the infinite possibilities of electronic music. And the album does calm down some from that opening salvo; "Is It Cold in the Water?" is both eerie and beautiful, with a synth pattern that epitomizes its namesake and a layered vocal performance that soothes as you drown in SOPHIE's sea. All that said, Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides defies traditional explanation--its sounds are too alien--but it is kooky with a hidden beauty, and it has what it takes to be an anthem for all the kooky people.
Heaven and Earth
Contemporary jazz : Listen
2018 was pretty good to jazz. For the first time in a long time, albums from America's first original genre not only received widespread recognition (as opposed to hipsters and snobby purists), but sold/streamed well too. Kamasi Washington, for those who don't know, is a saxophonist and composer who is probably more well known from his contributions to Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly and Damn, Thundercat's Drunk, or Run the Jewels' RTJ3, than from his own music. But such a travesty is no longer acceptable. Heaven and Earth, Washington's sixth album (the first three are self-released so, you know, good luck), is by far his magnum opus. While 2015's The Epic lived up to its title, running almost 3 hours (!) and requiring three discs (!!) in physical copy, Heaven and Earth is not only easier on the phone battery, it's also tighter, more cohesive, and infinitely more listenable. This is the type of jazz you put on at a party to seem sophisticated, but with the added bonus of no one getting bored. Washington's extreme talent on the horn is showcased in great tracks "Can You Hear Him" and "The Psalmnist," while his tremendous composition skill is evident in every note. Along with Washington is a set of players that could be compared to the old greats--their set-ups and solos are brain melting. If you're looking to get into what is often considered a dead, or at the very least, esoteric, art form, Heaven and Earth is an amazing place to start.
Stay tuned, readers. Later this week, we'll be releasing our Albums of the Year listicle!
If our Runners Up aren't enough to hold you over, check out our Honorable Mentions!
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